Dust Storm? Options

[slinted]

Pando : Latest: There are indications that there is a possible dust storm developing. The power levels have dropped quite dramatically at around Sol 330 for Opportunity and is somewhat worrisome. At Gusev things are trending similarly although it's a Sol or so later. This is getting interesting as it may even mean a global dust storm

This seems to be deserving of its own topic, going off of Pando's post in the heatshield thread.

Unfortunetly, the TES mainpage doesn't have daily dust maps anymore, and the latest bolometer images are from Dec 21:

The TES spectrometer is currently being used intermittently. At this time we're no longer producing daily images or movies of 15 micron atmospheric temperature or dust opacity. The TES bolometer is still being used full-time, and we will continue to update the daytime and nighttime temperature movies.

I was looking at the rear haz from Sol 331, wondering what sort of clouds might be responsible, but a dust storm might make more sense.



This post has been edited by slinted: Dec 30 2004, 09:15 AM

[dot.dk]

This could be real bad news

Can they put the rovers in extended deep sleep to prevent dead batteries?

[Decepticon]

I see why not?

Just make sure the Batts are fully charged.

[slinted]

If this is indeed the begining of a global dust storm, its a *very* early one. The "season" for dust storms seems to be generally accepted as Ls 180-360 (southern hemisphere spring and summer), but we're only at Ls 136 now. We're barely out of southern winter. The 2001 superstorm arose around Ls 180 and lasted 3 months.

[lyford]

I'm no expert, but that looks like a light artifact, not really clouds. A NAVCAM image of the horizon from an hour later than the rear HAZCAM image doesn't seem to show any looming threat....
Navcam Image

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

changed my rather emabarrassing original message lol.......anyway, they should have a good idea of whats going on with MGS Oddyssey and Mars Express

This post has been edited by Sunspot: Dec 29 2004, 11:26 PM

[akuo]

The MGS used to take dust measurements daily, but looks like this is not currently the case. This site had an updated map of the global dust situation:
http://tes.asu.edu/

[lyford]

Definately a dust storm brewing, Found some images by Donald Parker on the Mars Observers Yahoo Group dated December 13th. 

Uh, that would be Dec. 13, 2003, I think.

From the group's homepage:

It is also almost totally inactive right now, because Mars is currently on the far side of the Sun, and won't be observable until summer of 2005.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Forward HazCam shot:

[alan]

never mind

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

There is a message in the group dated Dec 12 2004 : "Possible and Probable Dust Storms" When I saw Dec 13 on the image I just linked the two together

[lyford]

There is a message in the group dated Dec 12 2004 : "Possible and Probable Dust Storms" When I saw Dec 13 on the image I just linked the two together

I just read that message - you are right about the date, but I think they are talking about the 2003 storms in that post. I can't see the mysterious "Figure 5" but it is confusing, to say the least. Just joined the yahoo group to look at your linked pic...looks interesting... got more reading to do!

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Well.......at least we got to see the heatshield.

[slinted]

OK, I'm fairly convinced now that Lyford is correct in this being a camera/processing effect, and not an image of an actual feature in the sky. Although the sky in the corresponding left eye of the rear haz taken at the same time shows a similar mottled texture, the actual variation doesn't line up between the two.
It will be definitive once the left image gets fully downlinked, but by comparing the two, I don't believe they show actual differences in brightness between different areas of the sky. Sorry for jumping the gun on this one.
Left eye

Right eye

[akuo]

Slinted, I wondered about the rear hazcam images too when I saw them first. When you mentioned the dust storm, my first impression of the images was dust flying close to the hazcam, making it unfocused. If this was the case the effect wouldn't need to line up in the sky.

The effect doesn't appear in the front hazcam images taken at the same time though, so I think this explanation is still unlikely, as the dust in the air would have to be very local.